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Play and Defend Better: for improving players

Time To Count.

Declarer’s hand, that is (well, for today! A declarer may well be able to count a defender’s hand too.) Is that something you never do, rarely do, try and do but get stuck and confused or always do? Be honest. While a thinking bridge player would say you would always try to do so, it is not always necessary or possible. A sequence like 1-2-4 does not tell you that much about a declarer’s hand and even the sight of dummy may not give you too many clues.

However, there are many hands when you should try…and when you succeed, the right defence will be more obvious.

We should state that counting declarer’s hand involves counting both high card points and the shape of the hand. A little bit of counting would have gone a long way on the following deal:

South DealsBoth Vul

♠

A K J 9

♥

8 7 5 4 2

♦

10 7

♣

J 8

N

W

E

S

♠

10 6 5

♥

A Q J

♦

J 9 2

♣

K 9 7 2

West

North

East

South

Dummy

You

1 NT

Pass

2 ♦

Pass

2 ♥

Pass

2 ♠

Pass

4 ♥

All pass

1NT was 15-17 and 2 showed hearts with 2 being natural but only forcing to 3. However, South soon had their partnership in game on the lead of the 6 from West, covered by the 10, your jack and declarer’s king.

At trick 2, declarer led 9 to their queen followed by a second spade to dummy’s ace and then the K on which declarer discarded 4 as West followed suit. At trick 5, declarer played the high J which you ruffed with your Q. That brought Q discard from declarer and the remaining low spade from your partner. How were you going to beat the contract?

At the table, East decided declarer must have a doubleton club or else why start discarding clubs in such a hurry? Therefore, he decided to draw two rounds of trumps to cut down the ruffing options…but that was the end of the defence.

Count, count, count! It was possible that South had 4 hearts though many players make some form of super-accept over the 2 transfer with four trumps. What was more likely was that South had three hearts, from their willingness to play in 4. South was known to have two spades while it made little sense for declarer to have more than two clubs. They may have had three headed by the queen though then declarer had a legitimate though anti-percentage play of playing you, East, for both high missing clubs. (South just had to be missing the king.) Therefore, if South was 232 in the three known suits, they must have 6 diamonds.

Counting high card points

So, to high card points. Q and AK were known (your partner would never underlead the ace) along with the discarded Q. That’s 11. To arrive at a minimum 15, declarer just had to have K and almost certainly the Q (players have been known to open a strong no-trump, especially with a 6-card minor, with only 14 hcp.). So, let's say:

Qx Kxx AK(Q)xxx Q

What should your return be? Best return is a diamond. Hey, partner led that suit! What a revelation….returning partner’s lead!

South DealsBoth Vul

♠

A K J 9

♥

8 7 5 4 2

♦

10 7

♣

J 8

♠

7 4 3 2

♥

10 6

♦

6 3

♣

A 10 6 5 3

N

W

E

S

♠

10 6 5

♥

A Q J

♦

J 9 2

♣

K 9 7 2

♠

Q 8

♥

K 9 3

♦

A K Q 8 5 4

♣

Q 4

West

North

East

South

Dummy

You

1 NT

Pass

2 ♦

Pass

2 ♥

Pass

2 ♠

Pass

4 ♥

All pass

With only red cards left, North would have had to play the Q next (had they exited a low trump, you win and play a club). West would be able to stop declarer discarding a club by ruffing low though, it would be even better ruffing with 10 as one club was discarded from dummy. West would exit with A ruffed in hand though whichever card South played, you, East, would score two more trump tricks (thus four in all) to beat the contract by a trick.

All because you took a minute to count declarer’s hand.

It was very easy for the defence at the other table after the following sequence:

West North East South

1

Pass 1 Pass 3

Pass 3 Pass 4

All Pass

East was on lead and found a low club lead. A further round of clubs left the declarer with the impossible task of playing trumps for one loser.

Certainly, it was harder for the defence with West on lead. However, a spot of counting would have led East to the correct solution of returning partner’s lead. (p.s. a club return at trick 6 would also have beaten the contract though it is nice to be able to show a problem hand where the solution is simply to return partner’s opening lead!)